smashes into

August 7

The Northern Hemisphere is considered to be halfway through its summer and the Southern Hemisphere half way through its winter on this day.

Events

322 BC - Battle of Crannon between Athens and Macedon following the death of Alexander the Great.
1461 - the Ming Dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor.
1606 - The first documented performance of Macbeth performed at the Great Hall at Hampton Court.
1679 - The brigantine Le Griffon, commissioned by René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, is towed to the south-eastern end of the Niagara River, to become the first ship to sail the upper Great Lakes of North America.
1714 - The Battle of Gangut: the first important victory of the Russian Navy.
1782 - George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It is later renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart.
1789 - The United States War Department is established.
1794 - The Whiskey Rebellion begins: farmers in the Monongahela Valley of Pennsylvania rebel against the federal tax on liquor and distilled drinks.
1819 - Simón Bolívar triumphs over Spain in the Battle of Boyacá.
1879 - The opening of the Poor Man's Palace in Manchester.
1927 - The Peace Bridge opens between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.
1933 - The Iraqi Government slaughters over 3,000 Assyrians in the village of Sumail. The day becomes known as Assyrian Martyrs Day.
1940 - Alsace Lorraine is annexed by the Third Reich (Germany) during World War II
1942 - World War II: the Battle of Guadalcanal begins - United States Marines initiate the first American offensive of the war with landings on Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.
1944 - IBM dedicates the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).
1945 - President Harry Truman announces the bombing of Hiroshima with an atomic bomb while returning from the Potsdam Conference aboard the heavy cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31) in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
1947 - Thor Heyerdahl's balsa wood raft the Kon-Tiki, smashes into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands after a 101-day, 7000-km (4375-mile) journey across the Pacific Ocean proving that pre-historic peoples could have traveled from South America.
1947 - The Bombay Municipal Corporation formally takes over the Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).
1955 - Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering, the precursor to Sony, begins selling its first transistor radios in Japan.
1959 - The Lincoln Memorial design on the U.S. penny goes into circulation. It replaces the "sheaves of wheat" design and is still in use.
1959 - Explorer program: Explorer 6 launched from the Atlantic Missile Range in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1960 - Côte d'Ivoire becomes independent.
1964 - Vietnam War: the U.S. Congress passes the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving US President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.
1966 - Race riots occur in Lansing, Michigan.
1967 - Vietnam War: the People's Republic of China agrees to give North Vietnam an undisclosed amount of aid in the form of a grant.
1970 - California judge Harold Haley is taken hostage in his courtroom and killed during in an effort to free George Jackson from police custody.
1973 - NBC airs the final day of the Watergate hearings on U.S. daytime television.
1974 - Philippe Petit performed a high wire act between the twin towers of the World Trade Center 1,368 ft (417.0 m) in the air.
1976 - Viking program: Viking 2 enters into orbit around Mars.
1978 - United States President Jimmy Carter declares a federal emergency at Love Canal.
1981 - The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.
1985 - Takao Doi, Mamoru Mohri and Chiaki Mukai are chosen to be Japan's first astronauts.
1988 - Rioting in New York City's Tompkins Square Park.
1989 - U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland (D-TX) and 15 others die in a plane crash in Ethiopia.
2007 - Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants breaks baseball great Hank Aaron's record by hitting his 756th home run.
2008 - Georgia launches a military offensive to surround and capture the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, from Russian control, starting the South Ossetia War.

Births

317 - Constantius II, Roman emperor (d. 361)
1282 - Princess Elizabeth of Rhuddlan (d. 1316)
1533 - Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, Basque soldier and poet (d. 1595)
1560 - Elizabeth Báthory, Hungarian countess and serial killer (d. 1614)
1574 - Robert Dudley, styled Earl of Warwick, English writer (d. 1649)
1598 - Georg Stiernhielm, Swedish poet (d. 1672)
1726 - James Bowdoin, American Revolutionary leader and politician (d. 1790)
1742 - Nathanael Greene, American Revolutionary general (d. 1786)
1751 - Wilhelmina of Prussia, Princess of Orange (d. 1820)
1779 - Louis de Freycinet, French explorer (d. 1842)
1779 - Carl Ritter, German geographer (d. 1859)
1783 - Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom (d. 1810)
1844 - Auguste Michel-Lévy, French geologist (d. 1911)
1860 - Alan Leo, British astrologer (d. 1917)
1862 - Victoria of Baden, Queen of Sweden (d. 1931)
1867 - Emil Nolde, German painter (d. 1956)
1868 - Ladislaus Bortkiewicz, Russian mathematician (d. 1931)
1876 - Mata Hari, Dutch spy (d. 1917)
1877 - Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (d. 1949)
1879 - Johannes Kotze, South African cricketer (d. 1931)
1885 - Billie Burke, American actress (d. 1970)
1901 - Ann Harding, American actress (d. 1981)
1903 - Louis Leakey, British archaeologist (d. 1972)
1904 - Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1971)
1907 - Albert Kotin, American abstract painter (d. 1980)
1911 - Nicholas Ray, American director and scenarist (d. 1979)
1913 - George Van Eps, American guitarist (d. 1998)
1921 - Manitas de Plata, Gypsy guitarist
1925 - M. S. Swaminathan, Indian scientist
1925 - Felice Bryant, American country songwriter and singer (d. 2003)
1926 - Stan Freberg, American voice comedian
1927 - Edwin W. Edwards, American politician
1927 - Art Houtteman, American baseball player (d. 2003)
1927 - Carl Switzer, American child actor (d. 1959)
1928 - Romeo Muller, American screenwriter (d. 1992)
1928 - James Randi, Canadian magician
1929 - Don Larsen, American baseball player
1931 - Charles E. Rice, American legal scholar and author
1932 - Abebe Bikila, Ethiopian athlete (d. 1973)
1932 - Maurice Rabb, Jr., American ophthalmologist
1932 - Edward Hardwicke, British actor
1933 - Eddie Firmani, South African football player and coach
1936 - Rahsaan Roland Kirk, American saxophonist (d. 1977)
1937 - Don Wilson, England cricketer
1939 - Anjanette Comer, American actress
1940 - Jean-Luc Dehaene, Belgian politician
1942 - Tobin Bell, American actor
1942 - Garrison Keillor, American writer and radio host
1942 - Carlos Monzón, Argentine boxer
1942 - B.J. Thomas, American singer
1942 - Caetano Veloso, Brazilian musician
1943 - Dino Valente, American musician (Quicksilver Messenger Service) (d. 1994)
1943 - Alain Corneau, French film director
1944 - Robert Mueller, Director of the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
1944 - David Rasche, American actor
1945 - Alan Page, American football player
1946 - Ed Seykota, American commodities and futures trader
1947 - Franciscus Henri, Dutch-born Australian entertainer
1948 - Greg Chappell, Australian cricket player, captain and coach
1948 - Marty Appel, American public relations executive and author
1949 - Walid Jumblatt, Lebanese political leader
1950 - Alan Keyes, American diplomat and political activist
1952 - Alexei Sayle, British comedian
1953 - Anne Fadiman, American writer; daughter of Clifton Fadiman
1954 - Jonathan Pollard, Israeli spy
1955 - Vladimir Sorokin, Russian writer
1955 - Greg Nickels, mayor of Seattle
1955 - Wayne Knight, American actor
1955 - Gregoris Valtinos, Greek actor and director
1957 - Alexander Dityatin, Soviet gymnast
1958 - Bruce Dickinson, English singer (Iron Maiden)
1958 - Alberto Salazar, American distance runner
1959 - Ali Shah, Zimbabwean cricketer
1960 - David Duchovny, American actor
1960 - Jacquie O'Sullivan, British singer (Bananarama)
1961 - Yelena Davydova, Soviet gymnast
1962 - Bruno Pelletier, Québécois singer
1963 - Harold Perrineau Jr., American actor
1964 - Michael Weishan, American TV host
1964 - John Birmingham, Australian author
1966 - Kristin Hersh, American singer and guitarist (Throwing Muses)
1966 - Jimmy Wales, American internet entrepreneur
1967 - Jason Grimsley, American baseball player
1968 - Lynn Strait, American singer (Snot)
1971 - Sydney Penny, American actress
1971 - Rachel York, American actress and singer
1971 - Dominic Cork, England cricketer
1972 - Greg Serano, American actor
1973 - Danny Graves, American baseball player
1973 - Kevin Muscat, Australian footballer
1975 - Edgar Rentería, Colombian baseball player
1975 - David Hicks, Australian alleged terrorist
1975 - Charlize Theron, South African actress
1975 - Gaahl (Kristian Eivind Espedal), Norwegian musician
1975 - Koray Candemir, Turkish singer
1976 - Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos, Greek footballer
1976 - Shane Lechler, American football player
1977 - Samantha Ronson, British DJ.
1978 - Jamey Jasta, American singer (Hatebreed)
1978 - Alexandre Aja, French director
1978 - Vanness Wu, Taiwanese singer
1978 - Cirroc Lofton, American actor
1978 - Shirley Yeung, Hong Kong actress
1979 - Eric Johnson, American actor
1980 - Aurélie Claudel, French model
1982 - Yana Klochkova, Ukrainian swimmer
1982 - Vasileios Spanoulis, Greek basketball player
1983 - Tina O'Brien, British actress
1987 - Sidney Crosby, Canadian hockey player
1988 - Melody Oliveria, American internet blogger
1996 - Tessa Allen, American actress